CASE STUDY: Hog Producer Optimizes Weighing with 190

Puratone Corporation, one of the largest hog producers in North America, has a long history of applying the best management practices and implementing operational efficiencies to stay at the top of their industry. This commitment to excellence has prompted Puratone to seek out the latest innovations in technology, always looking for new ways to improve their business. This has allowed Puratone to blaze a trail as one of the most efficient and innovative hog producers in North America. It has also allowed the company to achieve significant market share, increase profitability, and to remain an acknowledged leader within the North American hog production industry.

Answering the Call of Excellence

That never-ceasing quest to maintain a leading position and keep ahead of competition led Puratone to Protech Scale in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Protech Scale has been an official Cardinal Scale Manufacturing Company dealer for over 10 years and is no stranger to technological innovations. When Puratone came calling, Protech Scale was more than ready to answer. “One of our bigger customers (Puratone Corporation), a hog stockyard, runs literally tens of thousands of livestock through their sixty-five weigh stations a year and wanted to make their weighing process more efficient,” said Norm Wallack of Protech Scale. “Even a slight improvement by a small margin, adds up tremendously when you’re working with those kinds of numbers. Puratone is always looking for the latest technologies to improve their business. The new Cardinal 190 STORM weight indicator was everything they were looking for. Over the course of 18 months, this stockyard will be upgrading every one of its 65 IQ-355 indicators to Cardinal 190 STORM’s.”

High-Traffic Businesses Can’t Afford to Make Stops for Lengthy Service Work

“Time plays a huge factor when moving live products, so the 190 STORM’s ColorZONE LCD display keeps the scale operators moving at a quick pace because it’s so easy to read. It’s just like a traffic light; they love it! The operator sees that display light up and off they go!”

Wallack is referring to the 190 STORM’s bright vivid LCD display that changes color automatically so that the operator knows immediately whether or not the load is in the acceptable pre-assigned weight range. If the weight is under or over the target weight range, different colors display on the weight readout to alert the scale operator. This ease of use combined with the 190 STORM indicator’s rugged polycarbonate IP69K-rated wash-down enclosure and capacitive touch keys provide maximum protection from impacts for the ultimate durability in harsh environments. This keeps the scale operation moving rapidly with no work stoppages since the 190 STORM can literally take a beating and keep working.

“Obviously, hogs have a less-than-clean reputation, so in this particular environment, an indicator not only has to perform reliably, but it also has to be able to stand up against some of the most extreme wear and tear cleanup operations around,” said Wallack. The 190 STORM’s watertight, highly-durable enclosure provides extreme pressure and temperature resistance, up to 176 degrees F (80 degrees C) and 1450 PSI; perfectly suited to the daily scalding-hot high-pressure wash-downs of the stockyard. “No other indicator on the market could be better suited to those conditions in that environment; they wouldn’t have lasted through the first day,” said Wallack.

Reducing the Margin of Error Increases the Margin of Profitability

“The operators love that there are no buttons to push down and get jammed, or stuck or tear off; it’s just touch and go,” said Wallack about Cardinal Scale’s 190 STORM indicator. Possessing no mechanical parts in the keypad whatsoever, the 190 Storm’s capacitive keypad operates on the capacitance of the operator, which is the ability of a person to hold an electrical charge. The keypad of the indicator functions much like that of a smart phone. Capable of detecting this charge and reacting to it means no exposed electronics and the entire front plate is constructed from one solid piece, lending even more strength to an already-powerfully durable indicator. “The possibility of a button being accidentally pressed by anything but a finger is really low; it won’t even react to anything without an electrical charge,” said Wallack.

Puratone was able to find success using the Cardinal 190 STORM indicator to improve their hog weighing processes and boost their operational efficiencies. To be the best in the industry requires the best tools of the industry. Thanks to Norm Wallack of Protech Scale and the Cardinal 190 STORM indicator, Puratone will maintain that technologically-advanced edge on their competition in the hog production industry and continue to be one of the leading producers in North America.